TRADITIONAL, NOT CONVENTIONAL.

Folk Medicine / Three Great (folk) Remedies, One Traditional and One Very Modern (June 24, 2014)

"Folk" is a very key word in the term "folk medicine" because the treatments, theory and rules of practice that belong to the tradition of healing of a particular culture are not just practiced by a few of its members. The knowledge is owned and fully used by ALL the people in that cultural group. Some will be more adept at using it than others (like grandmothers), it is freely available to everyone. We are not used to thinking about healing in such an everyday, easily accessible fashion. The treatment of disease has become mysterious and expensive and generally difficult, and if it isn’t done in sterile environments with expensive equipment and highly-trained practitioners under conditions of great drama we tend to think it can't really work. This of course is not the case. Prevention, the most effective method of handling disease that exists, is almost always lifestyle modification. And when prevention fails, high-tech and high-priced treatments are not the only ones that work. Most of us know that aspirin has its roots in an herbal medicine, willow bark. But so does penicillin – moldy bread was packed into wounds as far back as ancient Greece to cure or prevent infection.

In the early 20th century, what we think of as conventional medical practice was not at all what it is now. Medical doctors were poorly educated and used painful, dangerous and mostly worthless techniques, and consequently they had plenty of competition from several other systems of healing as well as from folk medicine. It was two things – the upgrading of medical education in the early 20th century and the accidental discovery of antibiotics -- that raised conventional medicine to the pedestal it so enjoys these days. The ability to take someone from death’s door to up and about within the space of a few hours (the early results from antibiotics were as dramatic as one could imagine) kind of gives you an edge over the competition, and once the use of antibiotics came into play,conventional medicine rapidly left its competitors (homeopathy, chiropractic and osteopathy) behind. But now that the limitations of drugs and surgery are finally becoming apparent to everyone, alternative systems and practices of every type are coming back into wide practice, and not a moment too soon.

Anyway, a good folk remedy works most of the time, and if it doesn’t work at least it won’t do you any harm. It may not (yet) have been subjected to scientific scrutiny, but it has survived the dual tests of time and of wide and often unskilled use. Contrary to general belief, most conventional medical treatments have not been subjected to scientific examination, nor have they been used long enough to be well scrutinized. Now, tradition is not always a good thing. Cannibalism and slavery are both traditional practices, and no one thinks much of either of those these days. But in the case of a treatment for a physical problem, centuries of use and wide practice is a definite plus. Anything that doesn’t work or has unacceptable side effects will be dropped soon enough. We see this particular evolution happening all the time; and not only in the latest and greatest supplement that in the end doesn't do what we hoped it would, but also in conventional medical practice, where a treatment or medication that is gospel suddenly turns out to have no actual evidence supporting it and is discontinued as quietly as possible.

Folk medicine is often denigrated because it generally has evolved out of practices which involved the delivery of healing by shamans and the participation of gods and spirits in health and disease. This is a cheap shot. Medicine, like religion, is not always improved by further development, and if a treatment has been used for a particular disorder for centuries, I would never automatically discount it. In the end it all comes down to what works and what does not – that’s the concept behind evidence-based medicine, and no form of treatment or prevention should automatically get, or be denied, that particular stamp of approval.

1) Aloe Vera for Burns,The application of fresh aloe vera gel is great for many skin conditions, but because of this particular use of it I think that every kitchen should have an aloe vera plant. If the burn is not severe enough for medical attention, it should be run under cool water until all the heat is out of it, and then some fresh gel should be squeezed onto the burn, covering it, and then let dry. It forms a kind of bandage over the injury that way. The burn will heal faster and better and not hurt as much than if you do nothing at all.

2) Watermelon for Summer Heat,“Summer heat” is described as a specific disorder in Traditional Chinese Medicine and watermelon is prescribed for it. There is a lot of overlap in TCM between food and medicine, and this is an example of that. (Because you eat it, not put it on your head.) Recently I was trying to push this particular cure on a bank employee for his summer-soccer-playing issues, and a gentleman behind me in line chimed in that he was a roofer and he thought that watermelon worked great for that purpose. I cannot think of many better testimonials for a summer heat-related cure than one from a Tennessee roofer.

3) Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger Snaps for Stomach Upset.

Ginger is another ancient Chinese remedy for many problems, including nausea from all causes. But you need to use enough ginger to feel its effects, and it's pretty strong stuff and not always what you want to be swallowing when you really don't feel like swallowing at all. This very palatable preparation of it was first mentioned to me by a relative of a lady who was using it effectively for the nausea associated with morning sickness. Since then, I have known it to work for two people on flu-related nausea and on a third for stomach discomfort caused by pain medication.

Interestingly, Chinese herbal preparations almost always include a sweetener in some form. (TCM rarely uses single herbs. They are used in combination with each other to increase their efficacy and reduce any possible side effects.) In TCM, sugar IN SMALL QUANTITIES is considered to be very supportive of the digestive system and of health generally, as is wheat. So, I commend the folks at Trader Joe’s for their medical insight, and I look forward to more excuses to eat their cookies in the future.